Council Committees 2005
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Greetings! I'd like us to use this to begin conversations about our committee work. There are 6 SPS committees for the 2005 Council:A. ComPADRE, The Nucleus, & the Scholarship ClearinghouseB. Under-represented groups in physicsC. Ethics Recommendations from 2005 CongressD. Undergraduate Research ProjectE. SPS Publications/Communications Task ForceF. Physics Education Research and SPSThis can be a good way for use to record dialogues before the actual meeting on Sept. 22-25, 2005, and to reference useful website, etc. Let me know if you have problems with using this method of communication. THanks, Gary

NSF Program Director
(on assignment from the AIP and the Society of Physics Students to serve as the Robert Noyce Scholarship Program Director at the National Science Foundation)

Welcome to the ComPADRE committee thread. Let me start by giving you the charge to the committee:

ComPADRE, The Nucleus, and the Scholarship Clearinghouse---SPS is part of an NSF-funded effort (NSDL, the National Science Digital Library), led by AAPT and involving APS and AAS, to continue development of ComPADRE, the physics digital library. The student component of ComPADRE is called The Nucleus (www.compadre.org/student) and it features an Undergraduate Research Clearinghouse, Chapter of the Month features, book and text reviews, discussion threads, surveys and polls, etc. The latest addition, which should be initiated very soon, is a Scholarship Clearinghouse. Committee A is charged with reviewing the content of The Nucleus, test-driving the Scholarship Clearinghouse, and suggesting new ways to bring physics students to the site and getting them to contribute and participate. The committee will prepare a document summarizing the committee's accomplishments, recommendations and decisions to date to share with the rest of the Council. The document should include a timeline for accomplishing the committee's goals for the rest of the academic year. Those Council members that are familiar with the Nucleus are especially invited to serve on this committee, but even those who have not examined The Nucleus can bring important insights to the group and are welcome as well.

As a preliminary activity, I would like you to do the following things:

1. Find at least one scholarship that is not on Rebecca's list (Gary or I will make sure that you have the list.) You can find the scholarship by searching the web, or by any other means you wish to use.

2. Go through the Nucleus and make some notes on the site. Please note the things you like, the things you don't like, and things that aren't there that you would like to see.

3. Post an item in one of the other discussion threads.

4. Think about whether you would like to "SPS Chapter web tool kit" on the site. What would you like to see in such a tool kit.

If you have any ideas about other things to work on before the council meeting, please post them here.

Looking forward to seeing y'all.

Dave

Try not to become a man of success, but rather try to become a man of value -- Albert Einstein

Hello Committee B:Please consider thinking about the charge to this committee before we gather on Th/Fr..The charge for Committee B is to answer some questions about the efforts of SPS to recruit/retain/include/encourage the participation of underrepresented groups in the physics community. Specifially, *Should these efforts be continued, expanded? *Are there other things that should be added? *What guidance would you give to setting priorities among these items? Our committee with will prepare a document summarizing the committee's accomplishments, recommendations and decisions to date to share with the rest of the Council. We will workd on a timeline for accomplishing identified goals for the reaminder of the academic year.

Thank you for taking the time to consider these ideas and questions. Watch for more posts tomorrow.Toni

Committee C is charged with reviewing the progress wrt these three recommendations, proposing a plan to further implement these three, and identifying any other high-priority actions wrt the Recommendations that should be pushed forward. The committee will prepare a document summarizing the committee's accomplishments, recommendations and decisions to date to share with the rest of the Council. The document should include a timeline for accomplishing the committee's goals for the rest of the academic year. Those who attended the 2004 Congress are especially invited to serve on this Committee.

Greetings, This is the thread for SPS Council Committee D. Undergraduate Research Project. The idea is that we start a conversation about what the committee should accomplish. The committee description and charge to the committee are appended below. But first, take a few minutes to respond to one or more of these three items:

1) Read the green-colored documents behind Tab G in your agenda book; the first is some thoughts about undergraduate research that represent the genesis of the idea of this project and the second is a statement from the Council of Undergradute Research (CUR). Do you think we should endorse the CUR statement?

2) Take this survey about undergraduate research!http://www.neiu.edu/~lruecker/research_survey/

Do you think this survey asks the questions that are important to you?

3) What are the main reasons why undergraduate research is a good thing, speaking from your own experience as a student researcher or a faculty mentor? What can make the experience negative?

D. Undergraduate Research---Millions of dollars each year are spent on undergraduate research experiences, but there seems to be a need to better document the value and impact of these experiences. SPS has long involvement in this issue---awarding undergraduate research grants annually, initiating and sustaining the Undergraduate Research Clearinghouse on The Nucleus, supporting the Journal of Undergraduate Research in Physics, supporting travel awards for students to present their research at national and international meetings---and is uniquely positioned to contribute views from the student perspective. Should SPS expand its current role to study undergraduate research more systematically? Possible avenues include submitting a proposal to support (likely a joint proposal with other agencies like the Council on Undergraduate Research, CUR, and others)1) Conference(s) on measuring the impact of undergraduate research (perhaps 30 participants, leaders in organizations and institutions that support undergraduate research experiences---SPS, CUR, NCUR, NASA, NIST, DOE, NSF, published authors on the subject, others)2) Fellowships for scientists, and internships for students with experience relevant to this topic to study, measure impacts, write monographs (perhaps a full-time person for two years and 2 additional scientists and/or interns each summer) 3) Site visits to document successful practices (teams of three go to three or four representative programs each year for direct study)4) Support for undergraduate research journaling (say, 50-100 students writing weekly about the undergraduate research experience each summer)

Committee D is charged with assessing the relative merits of these four ideas, perhaps modifying them or adding others, and recommending a course of action for the Council. The committee will prepare a document summarizing the committee's accomplishments, recommendations and decisions to date to share with the rest of the Council. The document should include a timeline for accomplishing the committee's goals for the rest of the academic year.

NSF Program Director
(on assignment from the AIP and the Society of Physics Students to serve as the Robert Noyce Scholarship Program Director at the National Science Foundation)

Greetings to the volunteers to serve on the SPS Pub. Task Force! In the short time we have before the Council Meeting, please take a few minutes to refresh your memory about SPS publications, especially the SPS Observer and Radiations. We will discuss the goals of our publications, so that we can better assess how well we are meeting those goals.Consider what ONE THING the publications should have more of to do a better job of attracting the interest of undergraduate students?Review the SPS Reporter program. There is some relevant info in your Agenda book, see near the end of Tab G, right after the green pages.If you have questions before the Council meeting, let's try using this thread to communicate!See you soon!Earl

I think that the one thing we should look at is the design/layout of the SPS Observer. I do remember receiving the SPS Observer, but it didn't seem to show up as often as I thought it would. Either that or I am afraid that I might have accidentally thrown it out with the grocery flyers and other types of mailers. It just didn't seem to stand out. I have to say this with the disclaimer that I have not received the Observer in some time, so I am not sure if it has been changed at all in the last year. I also seem to remember receiving all sorts of publications in my undergraduate days that I always had a good intention of reading, but never actually got to, as I was so busy with my course load!

Hey everyone on the publications task force, I hope you have had a chance to start reviewing JURP on-line, 'cuz my notes show that we planned on making our recommendations by October 30, with discussions starting on the Oct. 15! So, I have started looking thru the JURP pages on the web. Lots of good stuff, it will take you a little while. Take a look at how often JURP is published and how often we say we'll publish it. IF you have access to older issues in print, that could give a nice historical perspective. Rex also put some nice history on-line.Earl

Hi everyone! I took a browse through JURP and I am happy with the current layout. It is well organized and has a good color scheme (easy on the eyes). When searching the term 'Undergraduate Research in Physics' – JURP is the top link in both Google and Yahoo. At this point, I do not have a recommendation to change JURP, but I am always willing to talk about anyone else's ideas!

I agree with Diana that the layout of JURP looks nice, and it has some good features included. It is great that it shows up on Google and Yahoo, the TOUGH thing is to get it to show up on 'real' science citation indices. It isn't enuf of a 'player' to be included. Too much like vanity press? I don't want that, but how can be help JURP establish more 'cred' in the general physics community?One thing is lack of articles, which has really made it hard for Rex to put together articles. When it was paper published, we SAID we'd put out two issues per year. In the late 90's, that didn't happen. I had students who never got a copy of JURP because no issues were published during their one-year membership. Rex had to wait and wait and wait to accumulate enough articles to warrant a press run.So the thought was that going on-line would help. The JURP site CLAIMS that there will be two issues per year, one in spring, one in fall, just like in the old days. Well, look at the archives: one per year, in the summer. We should make our claims match actual fact.EVEN MORE OF A CONCERN: look not only at the number of student articles in each issue in the archives, but also look at WHEN they really come from.Summer 2002: 8 articles, but 5 of them were definitely published in much earlier volumes (one from vol. 16 #1, 1997), only three articles from Vol. 18 #2 (2001). By the way, Vol. 18 #1 was 1999.Summer 2003: 5 articles, none of them new, all reprints from earlier print issues, at least as far as I can tell.Summer 2004: 2 articles, claim to be Vol. 19#1, one was submitted in 2002. Curiously, the PDF's are fuzzy, look like scanned copy.Summer 2005: 1 article, and it is actually a reprint from Vol. 17 #1, 1998!SO I think that a BIG problem for us to address is how to GET NEW ARTICLES SUBMITTED.

Well Earl, I guess it's just you and me? Read the following with a bit of understanding that it is the start of an idea and there might be some rambling....

As a former web designer, I am always concerned with listing on the public search engines. I didn't even think about academic links!!!!

As far as lacking articles, do you mean that students are just not submitting their work to JURP?

Again, as a former website developer, I have to ask the questions...I don't mean to step on anyone's toes...What has been done to promote the website? Have the schools that support UG research been approached directly and informed of JURP? In the world of websites, getting the word out is life or death...have we tried to ask those schools that have had students published to put up an icon link to JURP on their physics websites? Or just in general, have we asked physics departments if they would mind putting up a link to JURP? I am not a politician – I am sure there must be some politics to this, but we need to get the word out of course, and free advertising is always a good way to do it. We can present it as mutual beneficiary to the schools by offering a place for their undergraduates to publish...a big plus for those seeking entry into grad school. More and more students are researching their college prospects on the web...if they see links to JRUP on the physics websites, it might put it in their mind about publishing and that the school encourages it for their students. And even if they don't go to a particular school, they might come away with the knowledge that JURP exists.

And of course, JURP leads back to SPS.... always a chance to increase membership. I would start with schools that have a SPS chapter already...just ask if the physics department would mind putting up a small icon with a link to JRUP. Then, of course, larger schools with research programs, the just work down the list. This is a huge suggestion with a lot of man hours...contacting the schools, following up to see if a link was placed, etc. We get the word out to the student population, which I would hope would increase submission for publications, which then would give the 'real' science citation indices some reason to start linking to JURP.

First of all, I like Diana's ideas for getting the link on folks websites. Until JURP is as common in folks vocabulary as PRL, it will not have high volume.

As a faculty member who has had two students publish in JURP, I'll say that I truly value JURP. I think its profile is too low. JYI sent e-mail to all REU site directors advertising their journal (www.jyi.org) and offering to "feature" our site in an edition. Can we do the same? Could we do a conference proceedings edition where we "invite" 5 of the students that got SPS research awards to attend national meetings to submit for the conference proceedings?

Now, the other challenge is that many physics mentors prefer to have their students contribute to their own articles (for publication in PRL or such) rather than spend time publishing in JURP. I know that we focus on getting our students work into our journal articles, not on having something independent for JURP.

Similarly, since they are not listed as authors, does this come lower on the faculty mentor's list of priorities? My institution might be enlightened enough that when I list my students JURP articles, they recognize them as important publications even though I am not an author. Are all institutions so understanding?

Now, are there institutions at which students write senior theses? Could we market JURP to these institutions as a possible venue for student publication? We actually added a Physics with Honors designation 2 years ago and said students either need to publish in a professional journal (PRL, PRC, etc) or JURP... We haven't followed up on this, but I will work on that here... Can we hit other departments for this one?

Just to follow up on this, I'm wondering if we could use the NSF-REU program to jump-start what JURP and even the Nucleus is trying to do.

I have gotten 3 e-mails in the past 2 weeks for Journal of Young Investigator reps asking me to consider having them focus one of their editions on the results from my REU students AND asking me to advertise my site AND asking me to send my students to the employment opportunities listings... They are really hitting the REU site directors hard with advertising.

I don't know if we should follow their lead and send lots of PR to site directors or if we should join forces...

By the way, I asked about a dozen REU site directors why they didn't have their students submit some of their end of summer reports to JURP and the reply was "what is JURP?"...

The chemistry REU program at the NSF is working on a website for national dissemination of ALL student work (REU or non-REU funded). We have a vehicle for at least some of the student work to get out, but no one knows about it. Should we be partnering with the NSF to make this bigger? Unlike chemistry, we have a student society that tries to provide avenues for dissemination, but the faculty are not aware of it and are not encouraging it. Perhaps we can partner with the NSF-REU physics program director to put the NSF label on JURP and the section meetings as great avenues for dissemination of student results. If we got a small grant, it would a) get us on everyone REU PI's radar screen b) get us money to help organize a massive PR campaignc) get us money to build the infrastructure for a major influx of papers and posters

So, any thoughts on these radical ideas? Should we just leave things alone, should we push our own PR, should we join forces with JYI or should we get the REU folks on board?

Hi all,Welcome to this discussion group. I'm Steve Kanim, zone 16 councillor. Since my research area is physics education, Gary asked me to reply to this post and to start the discussion that we will be continuing at the council meeting about physics education research and SPS.

Apparently the decision to form a committee on physics education arose as a result of a request from the AIP's education committee for AIP to develop an official statement with regard to physics education research. (I've copied this request immediately below.) The AIP Governing Board suggested that this be pursued through SPS Council. (AIP Governing board's response is also copied below.) Before you get to the meeting, could you start to think about what position (if any) SPS and Sigma Pi Sigma should take with regard to physics education research? I have some "conversation starters" below the charge.

AIP Education Committee's recommendation:

AIP should develop an official statement in support of discipline-based educational research, such as Physics Education Research. AIP Education Division should provide support to efforts by the APS, AAPT, and other member societies to foster and encourage discipline-based educational research. The AIP should also intensify its current efforts to disseminate the results of this research to secondary and post-secondary educational institutions.

Response from AIP Governing Board:

The AIP Governing Board generally considers statements brought forward by one or more Member Society; however, with respect to the Education Division, such a statement might be pursued through the SPS Council which governs SPS and Sigma Pi Sigma. AIP must set reasonable limits on what it can accomplish in such a broad arena. The AIP Education Division will continue efforts to provide support for member societies' efforts to disseminate and promote implementation of discipline-based education research. This will be undertaken via an increasingly visible AIP presence at national meetings and with increased interactions and support of particular committees, task forces, and other groups within Member Societies. AIP through SPS will continue increasing students' awareness of this research in the coming year.

My comments:Other member organizations have adopted statements in support of research into teaching and learning within a discipline. (See for example http://www.aps.org/statements/99_2.cfm). Does SPS want to adopt a similar statement? In what other ways can (and should) SPS take a position on physics education research? Some possibilities:(1) Letting SPS members know about published results of PER (for example, there is a new online journal Physical Review Special Topics -- Physics Education).(2) Informing SPS members about graduate schools where they might pursue PER(3) Involving SPS members in meetings where there is a PER emphasis (for example, SPS has been invited to send some students to next year's Gordon conference on Physics Research and Education (Electricity and Magnetism).

So: Is any of this appropriate to SPS or Sigma Pi Sigma? What are your views?

As a physics student and prospective physics teacher, I'd have to say PER is something SPS should promoteat all costs. Who wouldn't want better-educated physics students, or well-taught classes that might draw more students to physics as a major?

I was in a class last semester entitled Misconceptions in Physics Teaching in which we studied PER articles and practices to get a feel for the field and learn more about how to impove our own institution. From the multitude of papers and research (some 60 pages of reading a week), it became very clear that our current system, while adequate, could be much better. In a recitation I helped TA, the professor and I often had discussion about what I was learning from these articles and how we could apply them to class. The basic principles of PER, which center around having a student build up knowledge for him or her self, made the class more confident in their abilties to do physics.

As a society of physics students, it should be part of our goal to encourage the understanding of the topic by any means necessary, and PER is a great way to bring non-majors into the fold. Most of the students I TA now despise physics because it's, as previously stated in numerous articles, just a collection of facts and formulas. However, I can very often get them interestedin the lab by simply helping them udnerstand how their "facts and formulae" apply in each situation. I even had one student tell me it was her favorite class even though she hates physics. This, to me, tells me PER should be one of the top priorities of any professional physics society, let alone one centered on students.

I agree with Nate. It makes sense to increase our knowledge not only of physics but also how to communicate and demonstrate it. Many of the Hidden Physicists say what they find most useful from their degree in physics is the ability to anaylize and approach problems. It is a useful skill that should not be limited to those who either leave the physics field or study particle physics(for example). I also think it is important to find a way to communicate to those who do not study physics what physics actually is and why we pour energy and resources into it.